The present invention relates to a support, provided with spacers, for a printed circuit board with electronic components to be secured in a parallel arrangement thereat, whereby each spacer has a bottom portion secured at the side of the support facing the printed circuit board and a head for securing the spacers at a fastening location of the printed circuit board.
Such supports are, for example, used in computer housings for securing the main board there in. The support is not only provided for securely attaching the main board within the computer housing but also for compensating forces occurring during insertion or replacement of plug-in cards. In this context, the arrangement of the fastening elements between the support and the printed circuit board with electronic components has an especially important role. The possible fastening locations, however, can not be selected only according to the mechanical requirements, but must be positioned within free spaces that will remain after arrangement of the electronic components. This has resulted in main boards of different manufactures or of different configurations (AT, ATX) requiring different locations for the fastening elements. The fastening locations at the support must be provided accordingly.
For fastening a printed circuit board to the selected fastening points at the support, spacers are used into which a threaded screw is inserted from the side of the support as well from the side of the printed circuit board. The manufacture of such spacers as well as their mounting are thus time consuming and expensive.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to embody a support of the aforementioned kind such that spacers of a simple construction can be secured with minimal mounting expenditures at selected fastening points or elements of the support.